Chapter 33
Princess Charlotte
Princess Charlotte's official first day at the Academy.
Unlike her first day, which was kept top secret and thus had no onlookers, today was different.
The Sparrow class classroom was crowded with upperclassmen and even Academy students, drawn by rumors of the arrival of a VIP student.
"Look, that's Princess Charlotte!"
"Wow, she really has pink hair. But why is she here? I heard that royals usually receive private education instead of attending the Academy?"
"My mother said that all the governesses in charge of her education quit, so she had no choice but to come here."
"Really? Why did they quit?"
"Who knows? Anyway, my mother told me to become friends with her. How should I approach her?"
The children in the hallway chatted, oblivious to whether their voices could be heard inside the classroom, until they were chased away by the teachers and stern-looking escort knights.
'Hmph, talking behind my back.'
Pretending not to care about their reactions, the small, haughty Princess Charlotte snorted.
Soon, the bell rang for class, and Emily, stiff and robotic, began the lesson by handing out the expensive colored paper she had brought.
As the nervous Emily proceeded with the lesson,
"This is boring. Who would do something like this?"
The pink-haired child dropped the paper she was folding into a flower and declared.
It was high-quality paper specially prepared for the Princess Charlotte's first lesson.
Emily had expected the shimmering colors to pique the child's interest, but it seemed that was just wishful thinking.
Startled by the words of someone so high and mighty, she bowed her head and said,
"Y-Your Highness. Then, what would you like to do?"
"You should figure it out yourself. Isn't that what your position is for? Would you do it if I told you to take off your clothes and dance?"
-Twitch.
Emily's kind and gentle facade cracked at the Princess Charlotte's retort, which was far from ordinary.
If the other party wasn't a precious late-born of the noble imperial family, she might have immediately grabbed those chubby cheeks and stretched them.
However, there were three burly escort knights on standby even during class to protect this precious child.
She had no choice but to grit her white teeth and continue the lesson.
-Ding-dong-ding.
Just as Emily was fawning over her like a superior, the sweet sound of the break bell rang,
"Okay! See you later! Goodbye, everyone!"
Emily seized the moment and ran out like crazy.
Charlotte watched the teacher's retreating figure and secretly wore a satisfied smile.
-Waaaaah!
As soon as the teacher left, the children suddenly ran towards the playroom, shouting.
Charlotte was startled by the noise and frowned, covering her ears.
There were always people around who were mindful of the Princess Charlotte, but many of the five-year-olds here didn't truly know what being a princess meant yet.
So, their interest was only in the playroom, not in making a new friend.
'Ugh, this is hell. Sending me, a princess, to a place with these silly, snot-nosed kids. Just you wait. When I see Father this week, I'll be sure to tell him about this...!'
Charlotte clenched her fists, recalling her mother, who had sent her to kindergarten as punishment for successfully getting rid of her nannies a few days ago as planned.
"Nia, let's make what we were making earlier together. Come here and help me."
Ivanne seemed to have decided to build a castle with wooden blocks in the playroom.
The bright Nia silently sat nearby and began organizing the blocks as instructed.
Then, the princess, who had been watching, approached the children in the playroom with a haughty stride.
As Charlotte approached, the escort knight quickly came forward and placed a soft cushion for her, unlike the children who were sitting haphazardly on the carpet.
And Charlotte sat gracefully on it as if it were natural.
"Your Highness? We're building a castle. Let's build it together."
The friendly Ivanne said to Charlotte.
Ivanne had clearly practiced how to treat a princess at home last night, but despite her parents' efforts, she seemed to only know to call Her Highness by her name.
"Why make it yourself?"
"Because it's fun to make it together! Right?"
Ivanne looked at Nia next to her and smiled so wide that her cheeks puffed out.
She simply seemed happy to have a friend who followed her without question.
Nia also looked at Ivanne and nodded shyly.
"Hmph, you could just order someone to do it. You're just buying unnecessary trouble."
"No, I didn't buy it. My allowance is tiny."
The children learned so well; Ivanne was imitating the grumbling of the workers at home.
Charlotte tried to provoke her on purpose, but her attack, coming from someone who hadn't experienced her peers, didn't work at all.
Ivanne tilted her head, as if she didn't understand the princess's flustered face, and handed Charlotte a few of the organized blocks.
"Here, Your Highness. Let's build the wall with these first."
Charlotte looked at the blocks Ivanne offered and haughtily raised one corner of her lips.
'Hmph, she's not completely stupid. She wants to befriend me because I'm a princess, huh?'
Then, she lowered her gaze demurely and knocked the blocks out of Ivanne's hand.
"I don't need you. I like quiet children. So, you become my Exclusive maid."
Charlotte knew early on that becoming a maid of the imperial family was a glorious thing for families of lower status.
So, Charlotte reached out to Nia, who had Golden eyes that resembled her older brother, rather than the outgoing Ivanne.
Nia stared blankly at her finger as Charlotte pointed at her.
In the meantime,
"Nia is not a maid!"
Instead of Nia's answer, Ivanne, with her cheeks puffed out as she looked at the fallen blocks, shouted.
"I know you want to be my maid, but how about you fix that clumsy pronunciation first? It looks undignified. It's better to be silent."
Charlotte smugly shrugged her small shoulders.
"...What did you say!?"
It was then.
Cezar, who had been watching the volatile situation, ran over and said to Ivanne.
"Ivanne, Her Highness needs someone to help her. So, let's come over here and draw the design of the castle we're going to build! You said you wanted to build a castle that looked like Hugh last time, right?"
The mature Cezar calmly took Ivanne's hand and pulled her away.
Ivanne didn't understand Cezar's words, but she had never been harmed by listening to this friend, so she went and grabbed a crayon.
However, her glaring eyes were still fixed on Charlotte.
Charlotte, seeing Ivanne so angry at her, was a little flustered because she hadn't intended to fight or make anyone angry.
"W-What? Is your friend always that angry? Is that what they call rude? Hmph."
Then, Nia, who had been caught by Charlotte and was blinking her eyes, immediately nodded her head.
'What's this...?'
Was Nia a quick-witted child who was better at pleasing people than she thought?
The princess looked at Nia with expectant eyes, wondering if the child, who was always smiling foolishly, was actually quite ambitious.
However, Nia was smiling with her front teeth showing, a proud look on her face, as if she had praised her friend.
It seemed that Gilli's comment about Ivanne being rude sounded like a compliment.
Charlotte looked at the bright Nia and simply gave up her expectations.
"...I should go to the Flower garden. You will attend to me."
Nia tilted her head at the Princess Charlotte's sudden and incomprehensible words about going to see the flowers and followed her.
Ivanne, who had been watching her friend's retreating figure, clenched her lips again and puffed out her cheeks.
"What's a Flower garden?"
Roy, a chubby blonde boy who had been watching Nia and Charlotte, said.
Cezar, who knew what it meant, was somehow embarrassed.
Perhaps because he was precocious, he seemed quite ashamed that the boys were mentioning the Flower garden.
Then, a girl with glasses at the same table said.
"That's what ladies say when they go to the bathroom. It's a term used at social parties."
"So, you're being rude in the Flower garden? Yuck. I'm never going near flowers again!"
Roy said, covering his chubby head as if he had been shocked.
"That's not it, it's just a euphemism for going to the bathroom."
The rather mature girl kindly explained again, and Roy finally burst out laughing.
However, Ivanne, who was still glaring at the door, suddenly shouted.
"Flower garden or whatever! Princess Charlotte is bad!"
"I like her because she's pretty?"
Ivanne snapped again, annoyed by Roy's tactless remark.
"Is being pretty everything? Nia is not a maid!"
Then,
"Ivanne, Princess Charlotte is different from us. She's a high-ranking person, so all her actions have a meaning. So, we have to accept it. My father told me yesterday."
Cezar said, trying to calmly reason with Ivanne, but
"Hmph. I don't know anything about that! Nia didn't say she didn't like it. She's a fool!"
She was already quite upset, breathing roughly with her arms crossed.
In the meantime, the bell rang to signal the start of class, and Nia and Charlotte returned.
However, as soon as they returned, the princess grabbed Nia and sat her next to her.
Thanks to that, Ivanne, who had suddenly lost her partner across from her, had her angry nostrils widen even further.
'W-What on earth happened?!'
Emily's heart pounded as she saw Ivanne glaring at Charlotte with eyes that seemed ready to devour her in just 20 minutes of break time.
If Ivanne were to smash Charlotte's forehead like she did at the entrance ceremony, it was clear that she, who had stood by and watched, would be smashed along with her.
The ambitious teacher Emily quickly began to assess the situation with the eyes of a hawk in order to survive.
The burning Ivanne, the deliberately provoking Charlotte.
And Nia, who was somehow smiling and following her like a maid.
'Ah, damn it. Nia is Ivanne's anger button!'
It seemed that Princess Charlotte had forcibly taken the gentle Nia away.
Then there was only one way.
To return Nia to Ivanne.
But she couldn't risk having her head cut off by going against the little devil's wishes, so Emily simply hovered around Ivanne, who could explode at any moment.
The lesson was to glue the flowers they had made in the previous class onto paper and draw bees and butterflies on them.
Therefore, there was a pile of crayons in the middle of the round table for everyone to share, and Ivanne and Nia's hands touched as they coincidentally tried to pick up the same color.
Then, Ivanne quickly pulled her hand away and turned her head away.
Nia looked at Ivanne and tried to smile, but her sunken eyes were trembling, and she seemed quite shaken.
And the princess, who had been watching it with interest, said as if to provoke Ivanne.
"Nia, yellow would be good. Take out the green too."
As if making some kind of decision in response to Charlotte's provoking words, Ivanne gritted her teeth and quickly took all the yellow and black crayons.
Then, Charlotte, who was rather displeased, glared at Ivanne.
'How dare you try to challenge me, a princess?'
"Why are you doing that? Ivanne. We're supposed to use them together. Roy wants to use the yellow one."
Unfortunately, the tactless Roy blinked his eyes and said in the midst of the fiery war of nerves.
"Roy, use this! I always hold six at a time."
"Okay..."
Roy, intimidated by Ivanne's sharp command, received the crayon she threw.
That crayon happened to be black.
Roy, who had been trying to use yellow, slowly painted, his face looking like he was about to cry as his flower turned into a flower of death.
Emily, who had been watching it, stepped forward to quickly quell the situation.
"Ivanne, I know you want to do well, but these crayons are for everyone to share. So, what should we do?"
"Use them after I'm done!"
"No, the teacher thinks it would be nice if Ivanne gave one of the six she has to her friends..."
"It's okay. I don't need those colors anyway. Get the light green one instead."
Nia nodded slightly and tried to grab the light green crayon, but
-Whoosh!
Somehow, all the light green crayons were instantly in Ivanne's hand.
And soon, she showed the light green crayons and snorted at Charlotte's glaring eyes.
"......"
"......"
The silence was quiet but terrifying, as if the storm-like war of nerves between the two had reached its climax.
"Red. Give it to me."
-Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
"Orange! Give it to me."
-Whoosh whoosh whoosh!!
"Purple!!!"
-Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!!!!
"Green...!!!"
-Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!!!!
"......!!!"
Now, almost all the crayons were piled up on Ivanne's desk like a sand mound, as if daring her to try and do something, without Nia even having a chance to touch them.
"Wow!"
Even the children from the other tables all gathered around and clapped and cheered for Ivanne, who was like a hawk, but the children at the same table were all gaping at the tension.
The princess Charlotte was experiencing embarrassment and humiliation for the first time from her peers. As the children's laughter began to sound more and more like mockery, she finally slammed the desk so hard that the folded papers fell off and shouted.
"Hey! Are you stupid!? Why are you so slow!!!"
"...Ah!"
Then, Charlotte pushed the innocent Nia, who was sitting next to her, away.
Nia fell off her chair and landed on her bottom, and the atmosphere in the noisy classroom suddenly turned cold as if cold water had been poured on it.
